Best Buy closing all big-box stores in U.K.

The retailer is shutting down all 11 of its big-box stores in the United Kingdom by the end of the year. The company says its rethinking its strategy in Europe after the stores proved to be a drain on its financials. Meanwhile, the retailer also announced that its buying out Carphone's interest in its Best Buy Mobile business as it tries to more fully capitalize on the mobile industry.

The retailer is shutting down all 11 of its big-box stores in the United Kingdom by the end of the year. The company says its rethinking its strategy in Europe after the stores proved to be a drain on its financials. Meanwhile, the retailer also announced that its buying out Carphone's interest in its Best Buy Mobile business as it tries to more fully capitalize on the mobile industry.

The Post Bulletin reports employees at the south location in Rochester were notified it will close May 12. Best Buy built the store less than five years ago. It's among the 50 stores the Richfield-based electronics retailer is closing to cut costs.

That includes stores in Edina, Brooklyn Center, Hutchinson, Lakeville and Rogers. Best Buy on Thursday announced it would close 50 of its big-box locations in total and lay off 400 corporate and support workers.

Best Buy celebrates the grand re-opening of its remodeled Richfield store this weekend. The store's size was reduced by 20 percent. Shelf heights are lower. Less merchandise is stored on the sales floor and skylights provide natural light. If it succeeds, the Richfield store could be a model for many of the reeling retail chain's other outlets.

Best Buy is about to employ its new strategy of more – but smaller – storefronts, the Pioneer Press reports. The electronics giant aims to open new 2,500-square-feet Best Buy Mobile locations this fall, in Roseville, Woodbury, Stillwater, Maplewood, Richfield, Brooklyn Center and Burnsville.

Best Buy Co. Inc. on Saturday announced that stores in Brooklyn Center and Edina -- two of the five Minnesota stores the company had planned to close by this fall -- will shut down June 21. It was not clear when the stores in Lakeville, Rogers and Hutchinson would lock up for good.